Portsmouth Grammar School has been working with Kikaaya College School in Uganda as Partners in Learning for more than 15 years. We spoke to Tilly and Sabiha at Portsmouth Grammar School and to Trevor and Precious at Kikaaya College School to find out why the partnership is so important for them.
Tell us about the projects, what have you worked on together?
Precious: Food! We cooked food. We were taught how to prepare English dishes and we taught them how to make Ugandan rolex. I learned from them how to make banana bread and I'm an expert now. It's my favourite.
Mrs Titheridge: They taught us how to make Ugandan rolex and African pizza, which was very delicious. And we taught them how to make scones and crumpets. And banana bread because we thought we'd pick things that there might be ingredients relatively nearby.
Trevor: Our school offers a holistic education in both academics and vocation side. So it has been a good exchange program. It has helped me in public speaking, even speaking to you right now. When you go outside the school you need communication skills. When you have communication skills, that's already a foundation that you have in every sector. In your job, maybe as an engineer, maybe a public servant, you need communication skills, public relations. It starts from here when I'm speaking to you. That means I’m speaking to different people. In your work you're not just going to find Ugandans only, you find people from Asia, from Europe. So it gives you a chance to talk to different people so that you don't have anxieties and fear. You have a chance to talk with them freely and know how to connect with them.
I must say that these programs have helped so many students. Not only the students, but also the teachers at the school. We are so glad to have it.
Tilly: We've had a different theme each week that we would plan out, what we were going to share with Kikaaya College and what they would share with us. For example, one week we focused on music and we all went to the music block and we shared our different instruments. I taught guitar, we had others teaching piano and we learnt African drums from Uganda. We had a brilliant time, it was great to share our music and hear theirs.
Another time we were able to do a poem together. Some verses were written in our own language, some were written in Ugandan and different languages as well like French and Spanish and we each said a verse and it was brilliant to put different cultures together and really appreciate the variety that we had just in a small group of us.
Sabiha: We decided to do the Green Wall project when we realised in both Kikaaya College School and Portsmouth Grammar School that there's been a decline in bat sightings. They're really important for the ecosystem and so we wanted to help increase the bat sightings. So we decided to build a green wall, we'll have lots of bottles and grow plants in them to attract lots of insects for bats to come. Working together we've managed to accomplish this, seeing this flourish and after all the hard work actually seeing an outcome is amazing.
Precious: We've really learned a lot from these projects that we've been having. I joined this school in 2018, and ever since then I've been interacting with Portsmouth. When the students from Portsmouth visited our school we really enjoyed it. We exchanged cultures. I remember we taught them dances and it was fun and also I enjoyed seeing their dances. I remember the tap dance, it was so amazing. I didn't know anything about it so I was just amazed how they danced.
I learned a lot about the culture. I enjoyed making stuff with them. I was so happy when I was making the bracelet because I had it inside my heart that, I'm actually making this bracelet for someone, not from Uganda and I hope that person is going to love it.
Tilly: It's hugely beneficial for us to have this connection. I think a lot of us now we're completely consumed by our phones and how we can send easy messages when we lose the face to face. Even on a video call, it's still face to face connections with people and you get to see their reactions and their facial expressions, which is something that we lack now.
I definitely will make it a goal for me in future to go out of my way to really connect with people and engage with them and take the time to speak to them in person and learn about them as we have done with Uganda. Instead of just following the usual route of texting or following the tourist route, I'd like to make sure I put myself out there, out of my comfort zone and stay with the locals and learn about them and really find out about the culture as opposed to the culture that us typical tourists will be shown.
Sabiha: It’s about building relationships with people halfway across the world who you'd normally never meet. It's amazing just thinking about that. It's a great opportunity and I think our partnership with Kikaaya College School is a big motivating factor to just go in the future and meet more people.
You can read more about this beautiful partnership in
Chapter 1: getting started
Chapter 2: looking to the future
